Pastel Yellow
by ghosthawkergaming
Summary: Tails felt crushed ever since that day. It felt as though he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, and his knees were ready to break anytime. But as time passes by, he knows that he would soon have to let go of this piece of him, and carry on with life. What would life offer him now? A Tails X Cream fanfic. (All characters are owned by SEGA)
1. Chapter 1: Steal the Credit

Chapter 1: Steal the Credit

It never felt better just to feel the grass beneath his feet as he walked. The faint breeze caressed his face, and it felt as though someone was blowing at him from a distance. The smell of the earth wafted into his nostrils, replacing the almost sickening smell of metal for the past two months. The sound of birds chirping was music to his ears. Mobius never felt this lively before. Everything around him felt fresh and bursting with life. He smiled at the sight of two rats chasing each other's tails. Sonic and his team had finally defeated the Metarex yesterday after two long months of intense battles. They saved the universe, but it came with a cost.

He keyed in a code onto the door's security system, and the shiny metal door opened to reveal his workshop. It wasn't a huge workshop, in fact it used to be his garage, but he couldn't stand the unused space and thus transformed it into the place he spent most of his life in. His gaze was fixed on the floor as he dragged his heavy feet across the floor. The lab was completely silent, except for the sound of his shuffling and the metal door closing behind him. The sounds were slow and long, almost depressing. Incredible inventions stood obediently in a line, showing off their magnificent exterior to anyone who saw them. Lots and lots of toolboxes were stacked on each other at his wooden desk, accompanied by blueprints untidily piled on each other. He sighed and sat down on his chair. The ruby sky outside meant that it was sunset. He hadn't had dinner, as he was still full from all the treats Amy and Cream had brought over. Although he had an enjoyable evening, the whole time, something was weighing down his chest. It was like an undone chore waiting for you at the back of your head, simple yet annoying. At the corner of his desk was a pot.

The pot was light pink. The rim had minimalistic patterns engraved into the hardened clay, which reminded him of the two rose buds that sat on each side of her head. Only during her last moments did they bloom, revealing their extravagant beauty minutes before her demise. It didn't take long for him to be reminded that he was the one who...

"No!" he yelled out, banging his fist on the table. His teeth were clenched so hard that they looked like they would shatter anytime soon, and tears were welled up in his eyes. Whether it was tears of sadness, guilt or anger he couldn't tell. He grabbed a blueprint from the pile rather violently, cuasing it to crumple. He would work on his latest invention to take his mind of things, he thought. Only then did he realise that he had walked into the lab without turning on the lights or fans.

He was about to get up from his seat, but he didn't move muscle. He couldn't. His face was emotionless, and his hands gripped the ends of the armrests on his chair, as though he were holding onto them for his life. He didn't want to leave her.

Not again.

He was depressed. It was as though his whole world came crashing down on him at that very moment, seeing Cosmo fade away right before his eyes. No one could blame him. He was just an innocent eight year old cub fox, and just yesterday he had to pull the trigger on someone he loved. Something most adults on Mobius wouldn't even be able to stand. For the next half an hour or so, he just sat there, dwelling on the past that would never leave him.

"When will I ever get over you?" he said to the young seedling, his ears drooped. It stood motionless, almost taunting him. Another sigh escaped his lips as he finally stood up from his chair after what felt like eternity. He was really curious to know what the plant would grow into, almost dying to know. Would it grow into another Seedrian? A normal plant? Would it be Cosmo? But he couldn't bear to even take one cell off the plant. Soon, the purple rays of light spilling in from his windows started to fade, and night fell upon Mobius. He looked up into the sky and stared at the stars. The stars, how he had met her at the very beginning. He remembered that day as though it was today, and it constantly replayed itself mercilessly in his mind ever since yesterday, threatening to drive him crazy. Just then, he heard a knock.

"Tails! Are you there?" a familiar voice called out. He instantly knew who it was, and after giving the tranquil night sky one last glance, he went to open the door.

"Hey buddy!" the blue hedgehog, his adoptive older brother, patted him on his head. He couldn't help but to smile at his presence.

"Hi Sonic," Tails said. Although a broad smile was plastered on his face, the tone in his voice was gloomy, like a swamp in the nighttime. Sonic sighed.

"Look, Tails, I'm sorry I couldn't bring her back. I just-" Sonic was cut off by Tails shaking his head.

"It's alright, I don't blame you anymore. There's just so much one can do, isn't there?" Tails said, as he gestured for Sonic to enter the lab. Despite the lab being almost like a second home to him, he still awed at the magnificent inventions every time he walked in. He still couldn't believe an eight year old cub fox made all these. Tails also got flattered every single time he heard Sonic's "wows" and "woahs" as he marveled at his life's work.

"Why did you come?" Tails asked as he poured water from a jug into two cups.

"Oh, I went to your house and you weren't home, so I thought you would be here. Where else do you go anyways?" Sonic chuckled. Tails also giggled, but it was true. Tails was either at home or in his lab, or flying around in the X Tornado, which he only did when fighting Eggman with Sonic and before seven in the evening. He was pretty much cooped up in his house about all the time since he returned to Mobius. He missed Chuck, the times when the two of them would work on something spectacular together and go celebrate with a home cooked meal from Ella. Although he had left Earth for months now, it would forever be part of him.

"So why did you want to see me?" Tails asked as he set the cups of water on a table at one cornecorner of his lab.

"Oh, nothing much, I just wanted to check on you, that's all," Sonic said after taking a sip from the cup. "Also, we're having a party at Amy's to celebrate the defeat of the Meterax tomorrow. Wanna come?"

Only after the words left his mouth did he realise what he had just said. Sonic's eyes widened and he quickly shook his head. "I mean... you don't have to come if you don't want to... it's just a small party," he quickly tried to cover his previous words but to no avail. Tails was almost appalled. They were _celebrating!?_ His ears pressed flat against his head, his fluffy tails stiffened and lay flat behind him on thd chair, and his fists were clenched, so tightly that his fingernails dug holes in his gloves. Sonic was taken aback by his reaction.

"Tails, please understand-"

"Understand what?" Tails yelled, cutting Sonic off mid-sentence. Both their chests felt heavy, and the atmosphere went from relaxed to stifling. "You guys are celebrating!? CELEBRATING!?" Tails screamed at Sonic, almost ready to pounce on and attack his best buddy. Tears welled up in his now bloodshot eyes.

"Tails! We're celebrating because we saved the universe! Nothing else!" Sonic tried to reason with the enraged cub fox. This only made him more furious.

" _We_ saved the universe, Sonic? _WE_ SAVED THE UNIVERSE!? We didn't do shit! She saved the universe, and now you're trying to steal the credit?" Tails screamed again. His voice, drenched with anger, echoed around the four walls of the lab. Sonic was stunned. This was the first time Tails ever acted like this. Tails had never, _never_ swore in his entire life. And his first time was to his beloved brother. Sonic swallowed. Tails didn't look innocent anymore, he looked like an infuriated beast, ready to smash its way through everything that stood in its path. Silence followed, and for a good while. Tails took deep breaths, and when he finally calmed down, his body loosened up and he fell back into his seat. A throbbing headache was eating away at his brain. His tears had dried, but his eyes were red, almost as red as the chilli on a chilli dog - spicy, hot and violent. One hand shot up and started massaging his forehead. He closed his eyes and let out a sharp but soft sigh. Sonic didn't know whether he should feel guilty or not. He just enraged his little brother, but at the same time he had not done anything wromg. Was inviting Tails to Amy's party a wrongdoing?

"Get out," Tails said after a long while. Sonic was about to say something, but he was cut off. "Please."

The blue hedgehog said nothing. He stood up from the chair and headed for the door. The floor felt freezing, even through his socks and shoes. A strong and cold gust of wind attacked Sonic the moment he opened the towering metal door. He never felt this useless before. He could destroy Eggman's robots with ease, run around the whole of Mobius in less than an hour and even save the universe, but he couldn't even help his little brother. Sonic stared at the metal door that had shut behind him.

"Please get better soon, buddy," he whispered to himself, before speeding off.


	2. Chapter 2: First S-word

Chapter 2: First S-word

"Oh dear..." Amy sighed as Sonic recounted the events of last night to her. For the whole night, Sonic couldn't sleep. He was worried for Tails. For the first time ever, Tails was fuming with rage, anger level shooting past Amy's. He looked totally different for a moment. He looked scary. Like a canine ready to rip your flesh clean off your bones. Sonic shrugged.

"I didn't do anything wrong, did I?" he asked in a soft voice. Sonic rarely felt self-doubt. He was always the confident one, and always believed that his decisions were right.

"Not exactly. But don't forget you were the one who made Tails angry," Amy reminded Sonic. Sonic sighed.

"He probably hates me now. To think he even used his very first S-word on me," Sonic mumbled to himself. Suddenly Amy stood up from the couch and clapped her hands in front of Sonic's face, startling Sonic.

"Now's not the time to be brooding! We have to get ready for the party! We saved the universe, now it's time for us to relax," Amy said as he grabbed Sonic's hand and pulled him up from the couch. She led him to a table with a few cardboard boxes stacked ontop of it. Sonic peered into the gap in one of the boxes. He saw colourful streamers, party poppers and balloons waiting to be inflated. "Help me put these up, will you, Sonic?" Amy said in a sweet voice and started leaning closer to Sonic. Sonic, clearly disturbed by this, quickly tried to get her off him.

"Wait, shouldn't we get the others to help too?" he said, thinking that this would get him away from Amy for a while. He couldn't help but to feel proud about himself for thinking of something so quickly. However, upon hearing this, Amy pulled out her hammer.

"Trying to get away from me Sonic!? You're not going anywhere..." Amy said with an evil smile plastered onto her face as she took a step towards Sonic. Sonic was terrified. He wanted to run, but he realized he was cornered against the table. To his relief, Amy dropped the hammer and started to daydream, as usual. "Two lovers working together to set up a party for their friends... how romantic!" she said out loud, beaming with ecstacy. Sonic sighed. "NOW GET TO WORK SONIC!" Amy yelled, startling Sonic again. Knowing there was no way out of this, Sonic sighed and started to decorate the house.

Tails hadn't left his house since morning. It was lunchtime, but he hadn't even had breakfast. His stomach was rumbling, but he couldn't bring himself to get out of bed. The warm rays of the sun shone through his bedroon window, and the sounds of nature that he would enjoy on any other day filled his ears, causing him to bury his head under a pillow. His palms had bruises from his fingernails, and his ears were still pressed against his head. He was agitated. He could not believe that his friends were celebrating. Were they never friends of Cosmo? Had they always seen her as a Meterax spy sent to aid Dark Oak in stopping them? The more he thought about it, the harder it was for him to hold back his tears. Then he thought about last night. He was someone else altogether. He never felt that much rage in his entire life. For a few moments he wanted to attack Sonic so badly. He even wanted to see Sonic's blood spilling all over the lab floor, his body lying lifeless. Even he was scared of who he was last night. He shuddered at the thought that he might be going crazy. He hadn't slept two nights in a row, and eyebags started to form under his once bright and cheerful eyes. Just three days ago, he thought that everything would be fine. That they would defeat Dark Oak, stop their psycho version of forestation, and then they would go home, and Cosmo could stay with him. She promised that she would stay with him on his planet. But now, she would never be able to fulfill her promise. However, there was one thing on his mind. Himself.

Last night, he was a beast. A maniac. A total psychopath. Sonic didn't do anything wrong, yet he despised him so intensely last night. It was true that his friends were having a party to celebrate, but only now did he see the fact that they were not celebrating Cosmo's demise, but they were celebrating the fact that the universe was saved. They weren't going to celebrate Cosmo's death, they were going to commemorate Cosmo's sacrifice. Tails was ridden with shame. He screamed and yelled at his older brother. His best buddy who had always been there for him. He knew he owed Sonic an apology, but at the same time, he still felt that it was Sonic's fault. He was, after all, the person who made Tails angry. But he wasn't going to stay in bed forever as well. He slowly got up from bed, trying to fight the fatigue that enveloped his body tightly, and went to wash up.

By the time the two of them were done with the decorations, it was already noon. "This place looks great!" Amy squealed in delight as she marvelled at Sonic's and her work. The house was now lined with colourful streamers and balloons, and the furniture was arranged differently just for space.

"Ok, I think I better check on Tails," Sonic said. Amy shook her head violently.

"You're probably the last person he wants to see right now," she mumbled.

"How can you be sure you don't lose your temper in front of him?" Sonic rebutted. Almost instantly Amy's hammer appeares in her hand. Sonic's eyes widened.

"We can go together," he blurted out. Amy thought for a while, and realised that it was better to have two people reasoning with Tails than one. She nodded, and almost instantly her anger dropped to zero. No one ever knew how Amy managed to change so quickly all the time.

"Alright, then let's get going," she said with a cheerful smile, before grabbing Sonic by the wrist running off, causing Sonic to groan.

Tails was making lunch in his kitchen, when he heard two knocks on his door. His ears pricked, and involuntarily, he grabbed a kitchen knife from a drawer. Slowly and cautiously, he headed for the door, only to realise that it was Sonic and Amy after looking through the peephole.

"Not in the mood to talk now, Sonic," Tails said, leaning on the door.

"Tails, please-"

"It's alright Tails! If you won't talk to him, then talk to me instead!" Amy said, with a cheerful tone that was clearly forced. No reply. Sonic and Amy exchanged worried looks, but their heads quickly turned when the door opened. "Come in," Tails grumbled.

The two hedgehogs sat next to each other on a sofa. Tails sat facing them. Normally, he would get water for his guests, but this time he just sat there and stared at them coldly. An awkward silence followed, and the air in the room felt suffocating. Out of the corner of her eye, Amy spotted the tears on Tails' glove, and the self-inflicted wounds on his palm. Her heart stopped for a moment. Never did she think the eight year old cub fox sitting in front her would ever behave in such a way.

"Tails," Sonic finally spoke up. "Look, buddy, I'm sorry. But we really need you to understand that we are only celebrating the fact that the universe is saved. We're not celebrating... anything else." He was expecting another outbreak from Tails, and he braced himself. Amy's hand was gripping his tightly, and a worried look appeared on her face. However, all they got from Tails was a sigh.

"I know," was all that he said.

This took Sonic and Amy by surpise. What did he mean by that? Half of them felt relief, while the other half felt shocked.

"I'm really sorry, Sonic. I shouldn't have shouted at you last night. I am aware that the universe was just saved, and that does indeed call for a celebration," Tails replied. His words reminded him of Cosmo. No matter how small her mistake, she would apologise as though she had just blew up the Blue Typhoon. Before he himself knew it, he was trying his best to hold back his tears. He looked down at the floor, and his dangling feet stiffened. "I... I really don't know what hit me yesterday... I wasn't... me..." Tails tried to explain.

Sonix put a hand on Tails' shoulder, causing him to look up. "No worries! So are you coming to the party or not?" he asked. Tails hesitated for a moment. It didn't feel right. He was celebrating the result of Cosmo's death. What would Cosmo think of him? That very moment when he fired the Sonic Driver at the black orb replayed itself in his head. Tails shook his head hard, trying to get it out of his head. Then he remembered that Sonic was waiting for his reply.

"Um... I don't know Sonic..." Tails muttered. Sonic sighed, but he gave Tails a nuggie on his shoulder nonetheless.

"It's alright, take your time. You have until tonight!" Sonic reminded Tails, wagging a finger at him playfully. Tails couldn't help but to smile. "Alright, Ames. Let's go for lunch. I'm starving... Amy?"

Amy looked both frightened and horrified. Her mouth was left slightly ajar, and her whole body froze. Her eyes were wide open, her pupils constricted to the point where they were as small as grapes. Cold sweat broke out from her forehead, puzzling Sonic and Tails. Her trembling arm slowly rose, and she pointed to Tails' right hand. Sonic followed her gaze, and the next moment, he himself was stunned. Tails frowned at their reactions.

"Tails..." Amy said softly. "Why are you holding a knife...?"

Meanwhile

"Lunch is ready, Cream," Vanilla called to Cream, who was upstairs in her room.

"I will be down soon, Mom," Cream replied. Cheese was still sleeping, and Cream was deciding what to wear for the party later. She felt honoured to have been one of the main controller of the Blue Typhoon's shield and weapon systems, and she wanted to make tonight special. While flipping through the few dresses she had, she saw a dress with a beautiful floral design on it, and she couldn't help but to sob. The dress was white, and glittering green stems were sewn onto the dress. The stems were growing in all directions, and they covered most of the dress. On the end of every stem was a red rose, blooming flamboyantly with glory. Cream sighed, and her ears fell flat on her head. Cosmo was like her older sister, always there to comfort her when she was down, talk to and play with her when she was bored. They often worked together when fighting the Metarex, and watching over the ship when the rest had gone off to search for the Chaos Emeralds. Cosmo was her closest friend ever, and she knew that no one would ever be able to replace her.

"Cream! It's been five minutes! Come down before the food is cold!" Vanilla called again. Cream was jolted out of her trance, and she quickly rushed down the stairs to the dining table.

 _Timeshift_

"So do you have any plans for today, Cream?" Vanilla asked as the two of them cleared the plates. Cream was about to say no, but then she remembered that the last time she had seen Tails was yesterday afternoon, and she thought that she should check on him today to see if he was coping well.

"I'm going to visit Tails later, just to make sure he is doing fine," Cream replied, as she put the last of the dishes into the sink. Vanilla nodded, and Cream went back into her room to get dressed. Cheese had awoken, and when he saw Cream enter the room, he started dancing around her head, making happy noises. Cream smiled at Cheese.

"Do you think Tails will be fine?" Cream asked Cheese. Cheese replied with a simple "chao".

"Yup..." Cream said, staring out her window at the yellow roofed house sitting not too far from her house. "I hope you're right..."


	3. Chapter 3: Hear You Say that You're Okay

Chapter 3: Hear You Say that You're Okay

"This has gone way worse than I expected..."

Sonic and Amy were now having lunch at a nearby diner. They were both worried to death for Tails. Neither of them had touched their food.

"He's gone crazy," Amy said, shaking her head.

"No he didn't! He's just sad over Cosmo's death," Sonic replied.

"Did you not see what he did?" Amy said in a loud voice, almost yelling, causing other Mobians in the diner to stare at her. "He had a knife in hand! He was ready to attack whoever was at the door!" she continued in a whisper.

"Maybe he was just cutting meat in the kitchen," Sonic tried to reason, but deep down he knew for a fact that that wasn't true. Amy seemed to know that as well.

"We have to do something, Sonic," she said, ignoring Sonic's previous sentence. "We can't leave him be! He called himself a monster!"

Sonic sighed. Right after Tails threw both of them out of the house, they both heard a soft "I'm a monster" inbetween sobs. Tails was broken, and he desperately needed fixing. "Alright, we can do that later. Right now I'm starving," Sonic said to lighten up the mood. Amy sighed and nodded, and they both started to eat.

 _One hour later_

"Bye Mom! I'll be back by 7!" Cream said.

"Cream, aren't you going for Amy's party?" Vanilla asked from the living room. Cream gasped.

"Oh yes, that too. Don't worry Mom, I'll call you when I leave Amy's house," Cream reassured Vanilla, which made her smile.

"Stay safe, Cream," Vanilla said as Cream left the house.

The sun shone down onto everything below it mercilessly. The leaves on the trees swayed along with the wind, and their rustling was accompanied by happy Flickies chirping. Cream wiped the sweat off her forehead, when suddenly she spotted two familiar figures walking on the street.

"Hi Sonic! Hi Amy!" she called out. The two of them turned toward her direction. However, she noticed that their usual smiling faces were now frowns of worry.

"Hey Cream," Sonic said, not even trying to sound happy in front of the six year old rabbit. Cream raised an eyebrow.

"Is anything wrong?" Cream asked. Amy was never this gloomy when spending time with Sonic.

"It's Tails," Amy said in a soft voice.

"He must be so sad about Cosmo's death," Cream said, looking down at the ground. Sonic sighed.

"Well... That's not it." This caused Cream to look up in confusion. If it wasn't, then what could it be? Cream knew Tails since the day she was born. Tails was one of the most emotionally stable person she had ever met, and she knew that the worst Cosmo's death would do to him was depression. "You see... Tails kinda became... crazy." Sonic shuddered when he cane to that last word.

"What do you mean... crazy?" Cream asked, her voice clearly drenched with fear. Amy sighed.

"When Sonic went to talk to Tails, he was... different," Amy tried to explain without scaring the young rabbit. "He... well... he was... angry. Really, really angry."

"He became a monster," Sonic said, earning a glare from Amy. Cream's eyes widened. "He behaved like a beast, and he clearly wanted to attack me that night."

Cream didn't actually believe Sonic, but Amy decided it was best for Cream's safety for her to know about Tails' condition. "And when we went to visit him, he had a knife in hand." Amy said. Cream was shocked. Tails was the last person she knew who would go berserk like that. She tried to tell herself it was all a joke, but gave up upon seeing Sonic and Amy staring solemnly at the ground. "It's best if you stay away from him, Cream. You don't know what he might do to you."

Cream held back a sob as she looked up at Amy. "You guys are going to leave Tails alone when he needs his friends the most!?" Cream said, almost in a shout. Sonic sighed.

"There's nothing we can do now, Cream," Sonic tried to reason, but Cream simply shook her head. A look of determination found its way onto her face.

"No! Tails would never behave like that to his friends! I will go talk to him," she said firmly. Before Amy could grab her arm to stop her, she flew up into the air and headed for Tails' house. Half of her still couldn't believe that Tails had done all of that. Tails was always the friendly one in the team, and what Sonic and Amy had told her earlier on was simply not him. But if it wete true, the last thing Tails would need is for everyone around him to desert him when he needs them the most. Amy sighed.

"Hope she comes back fine..." she mumbled.

Cream landed in front of Tails' house and knocked on the door three times. However, no one came to the door. She then realised that the door was slightly ajar. Quietly, she pushed opened the door and closed it behind her. She looked around the house. Nothing different. The same couch, television, table, and a box of tools... Everything seemed normal. As she looked around the house, her sensitive ears picked up something. It was an extremely soft sound, and it came from upstairs. Cream quickly tip toed up the stairs. Up there, she could hear the sound more clearly now. It was someone sobbing. She could almost feel the sorrow coming from the sobs, causing her chest to feel heavy. Her ears dropped, and a sympathetic frown appeared on her face. She traced the sound to a room, and she lightly opened the door, only to reveal a yellow fox lying on his bed, crying into his pillow.

"...Tails?" Cream asked, her voice dripping with anxiety. She hated seeing people sad. Tails' namesakes were stiff, and they lay motionless on the mattress. His fingernails dug so deep into the pillow that Cream could see obvious tear marks in the cover. The pillow was stained with numerous streaks of his tears. He had layed there and cried for two hours, and his eyes were red and sore, but he couldn't stop.

Tails didn't respond to Cream. He couldn't believe that it happened again. He was fully ready to kill whoever was at the other end of the door. If it hadn't been Sonic and Amy, that person would probably be dead, lying in a pool of his own blood at Tails' doorstep. He was going crazy.

"Tails? Please... tell me you're okay... Sonic and Amy told me what happened... I came to see if you are okay now," Cream said in a soft voice again. Only now did Tails acknowledge her presence.

"Go away... Cream..." he said inbetween sobs. Cream stood there.

"Not until you tell me you're okay," she said firmly. All of a sudden, Tails threw the pillow onto the bed and shot up, startling Cream.

"I said... go... AWAY! You're only gonna get yourself hurt near me..." Tails yelled. He clenched his ungloved fists so tight, his fingernails digging into the already existing wounds in his palms. He felt the stinging pain, but he saw no reason to stop. He deserved pain. He was a monster.

"No," Cream said calmly, although deep down she was a bit afraid of Tails. Tails gritted his teeth. His fur was a mess, and his ears were flattened against his head. He slowly turned to face Cream. Only then did Cream see the sorrow and self-hate in Tails' eyes.

"Can't you see Cream? I'M A MONSTER! I'M GONNA END UP HURTING EVERYONE AROUND ME!" Tails shouted, causing Cream to take a step back in fear. "Please... leave before anything happens to you..." Tails said, ready to go back under his crumpled blanket. However, when his hand reached to pull the blanket over him, he felt a tight grip around his wrist. He was confused.

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me that you are okay," Cream said firmly. Despite Tails' frightening exterior, she knew that deep down, he was still that cheerful little fox who would never hurt his friends, and would always have their backs when they needed him. Tails slowly looked up, his whole body trembling from his crying.

"Why..." he whispered. "Why would you want to be so close to someone like me...?" Cream's other hand wrapped around Tails' balled up fists, and she could feel it loosen up.

"Because I know you, Tails. Do you think Sonic would have befriended you if you were a monster? Do you think we would have trusted you all these years if you were a monster? Do you think Vanilla would have let you near me if you were a monster?" she questioned, looking straight into Tails' sparkling blue eyes. Tails was taken aback by her questions. Soon, his tense body loosened up, and he sighed. Cream cringed at the sight of blood trickling down Tails' palm and down his arm.

"You're hurt..." Cream said, and she grabbed a roll of bandage that was conveniently sitting on Tails' desk. After bandaging his wounds, Cream sat down next to him. His red eyes were less swollen, and his crying had stopped. They sat there for another five minutes.

"So... are you going to the party later?" Cream asked Tails, finally breaking the silence. Tails shrugged.

"I don't know..." he mumbled.

"C'mon! It will be fun! Don't you always love parties? We travelled across galaxies to save the universe, and now, it's time for us to relax! Everyone would be sad id you don't show up!" Cream tried to convince Tails. Tails pondered over what she said, and nodded. Only now did he realise that he hadn't had a break in two months.

"Alright... I guess I could use a break," he sighed. Although it didn't feel right, he knew that if Cosmo were here, she would want him to relax. Cream smiled in joy.

"Great Tails! But... I still want to hear you say that you're okay," Cream said, looking into Tails' eyes. He looked back into her eyes as well. Was he okay? Just a moment ago, he was pissed off at himself, thinking that he was going to hurt everyone around him. He basically felt that he was a beast. A monster. But now, he felt fine, and maybe even a bit cheerful. The words were at the tip his tongue, but he still wasn't sure if he was really happy. However, when he looked into Cream's innocent eyes, eagerly waiting for his two simple yet complicated words, he smiled.

"I'm okay, Cream," he reassured.

 **A/N: Thanks for your reviews, positive or negative, it really pushes me to keep writin :) Unfortunately school starts tomorrow, and my updates would be slower. But don't worry I will try to get two or three chapters done every week! :)**


	4. Chapter 4: Red Eyes

Chapter 4: Red Eyes

18 30, the digital clock on Tails' table read, the divider blinking every second went by. Everything in his house was quiet. The windows were closed, the lights and fans were off, and there was nothing but dead silence. It felt like being in a car with the engine off, doors and windows closed. Tails' ears almost hurt in the stifling silence.

He didn't know how to feel about the party. Was it right? Celebrating so soon after Cosmo's death? But Cream had a point. If Cosmo were still here, she would want him to let loose and relax, and not get depressed because of her. But then if she were here, he wouldn't even be mourning. He would have attended the party without hesitation. He didn't like the thought that Cosmo was _dead_. The word was too strong for him, but at the same time he couldn't think of another word. He had never been faced with the death of someone close to him. He always thought that everyone around him would live happy lives forever, never forgetting one another. Being new to loss, he felt as though his whole world had come crashing down onto him like a derailed locomotive. A small yet glaring movement caught his attention. The alarm clocked now showed 18 31. He clould back out now, tell his friends that he had to attend to something urgent. But he had promised Cream that he would come. For some reason, this seemed to overpower his other thoughts. He made a promise, and he wanted to keep it. But didn't Cosmo make a promise too?

She promised that she would come to live with Tails on his planet. He had already thought of which room she would stay in, a new timetable with less time working on his machines and more on Cosmo, and who would do what in the house. That promise was never kept, and would never be. Tails rubbed his eyes with his bruised palms. For two nights, he didn't get any nightmares or any dreams. He hadn't slept at all. Another movement. 18 32. He felt a tiny bit bewildered that all that time was just another insignificant minute in his life. After two minutes of never-ending dilemma, he finally made up his mind. He stood up from the couch, feet hurting from the pins and needles. He grabbed a scarf that was lying next to where he sat on the couch and put it on. He grabbed a black jacket from his coat rack that stood at the corner of his living room. Tonight was going to be cold, his weather forecast device stated. He opened the door and was instantly greeted by a chilly gust of wind. He shivered at the sudden and unwelcomed change in temperature as he shoved his gloved hands into the pockets of his jacket.

"I'm okay," he whispered to himself, closing the door behind him.

 _Timeshift_

"Is everybody here?" Amy asked. Everyone had gathered in Amy's house. Sonic, Knuckles, Cream and Cheese and the Chaotix. The house was covered in a layer of vibrant colours, which contrasted the usual look of the house heavily. Everyone nodded.

"Great!" she said, closing the door behind her. "If anyone decides to come I won't let them in... that'll teach them a bit about punctuality..." Amy's expression and voice suddenly changed into evil. Just then, two knocks were heard at the door. She clenched her fists in anger as she looked through the peephole, and she immdeiately loosened up.

"Oh my god! Tails!" she exclaimed. Everyone craned their necks to looks. It was indeed Tails.

"Tails! I'm glad you came!" Cream squealed while rushing to the door, with Cheese following behind. Tails smiled weekly.

"We're _all_ glad you're here. Right guys?" Amy said and turned around to look at everyone. Everyone nodded with smiles on their faces.

"Great," Tails said before shivering from another gust of wind. "Now can I come in?"

Amy and Cream hastily moved away from the door and let Tails enter. Tails took off his scarf and jacket and put it on a table.

"Great to see you, buddy!" Sonic exclaimed in delight and gave Tails a nuggie upon seeing him enter. Tails giggled.

"Haven't seen you in a while, Tails," Knuckles said, placing a hand on Tails' shoulder with a smile. Tails smiled back. Everyone said their words to Tails as he joined Charmy and Espio on the couch.

"Alright everyone! Enjoy the party!" Amy said, gesturing to the plates of food and bottles of wine on the table.

For the next half an hour, everyone was happy. They were eating, drinking and chatting away. Many different colours of light shone across the room at timed intervals, and whenever a light shone into his eyes, he squinted. He was sitting on the couch with a cup of orange juice. The last time he drank alcohol, it wasn't pleasant, and he wasn't keen on trying it out again. Espio and Charmy had got up from the couch to chat with Vector, Knuckles was drinking a can of beer, clearly anxious to be back guarding the Master Emerald, and Amy was pestering Sonic to join her on the dance floor. Tails was the only one sulking on the couch alone.

 _Is this right, Cosmo?_ Tails pondered. _Would you be happy to see me right now, just a few days later?_ He didn't know which it was. If she were watching, would she be happy? Or would she be disappointed?

"Hey," he heard someone say. He looked to his left and saw Cream on the couch holding a plate of spring rolls.

"Hi," he said back. They sat in silence for a while, staring at the floor. It wad as though they both knew what was on each other's minds, which was true in a sense.

"How's the party?" she finally asked after one whole minute of awkward silence. Tails shrugged. Cream knew why he reacted like that. In fact, she herself also doubted coming to the party.

"Look Tails, I know how you're feeling right now," Cream said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"No you don't," Tails hissed, turning angry almost instantly. His breathing became heavier and faster, and his fists clenched onced again. If Tails acted up again now at the party, it wouldn't be pleasant. Cream's hand remained on his shoulder, and her other hand tried to pry his fingers away from his palm so that he would not bruise himself again.

"Yes I do," she said firmly. Tails didn't react to this, but his breathing had slowed, and he allowed Cream to pry his fingers off his palm. "Cosmo was like an older sister to me. She was the one who was always there when everyone else was busy, when I felt down, when I felt lonely..." Cream trialled off.

Tails had calmed down. His earlier look of anger had transformed into a look of empathy for Cream. "When I saw her fly towards Dark Oak... I... I didn't know how to feel or react..." Cream continued, holding back tears. "And the next moment... she was just gone..."

"And yet you're sitting next to the person who killed her," Tails said softly. Purple light shone directly into his eyes, but this time he didn't bother to squint.

"You didn't kill her," Cream said.

"Yes I did," Tails growled back. His anger was returning again. Cream was the only other person on the team to know how it felt to have to kill someone close to you. She quickly interlocked her fingers with Tails' before he could clench his fist again to stop him from acting up.

"You're not a killer, you only made sure Cosmo's sacrifice was worth it," Cream said. Tails looked up from the floor and into her milky chocolate-brown eyes. She stared back into his ocean blue eyes, hand still interlocked with his. Suddenly, Tails' stomach grumbled violently. Only then did he realise he hadn't eaten anything for the whole day. Cream giggled, causing him to blush in embarrassment.

"Here, have one," she said, handing him a spring roll.

"It's fine, I'm not hungry," Tails replied, only to realise how obvious his lie was, which made Cream giggle more and him blush harder. He took the spring roll and mumbled a thanks to Cream.

The party was going steady. The house was full of laughter, chattering and disco music. However, a pair of sinister red eyes lurked in the forest outside of the house. They were so bright and glaring, yet hidden so perfectly in the darkness of the wolds. They scanned the inside of the house through a window. When it spotted a two tailed fox on the couch, it beeped in confirmation.

"Target confirmed alive," it's robotic voice resonated in its head. Evil laughter filled its emotionless head.

"Very well, come back now," a gruff voice said. The figure nodded, and shortly after melted away into a silver liquid, reflecting the moonlight like a puddle of water. It slithered away, back into the depths of the forest.

 _After the party_

Everyone was saying their goodbyes, and soon only Cream and Tails were left at the door. Sonic and Amy were inside cleaning up.

"Let's go," Tails said as he straightened his scarf. Cream nodded and walked behind him. Their houses were on the same stretch, so they usually walked home together when they could. The night sky was decorated with a crescent moon, not too bright or too dark for its surroundings. Stars littered the dark blue sky, taking turns to sparkle. The sound of waves from the nearby beach could be heard, splashing against the sand rythmically. The now dark green trees towered over the two of them, their leaves rustling to the breeze.

Usually, their walks home would be accompanied by conversations of the day's events. But this time, the walk home was pretty much silent. They trudged on down the path that lead to their homes, under the watch of the night sky. A chilling gust of wind blew by, and Cream shivered.

Tails realised that she wasn't wearing any extra clothing to keep her warm, and he quickly took off his scarf and put it around her neck. She blushed in embarrassment. "You don't have to," she said as her hands reached to take off the scarf. However, Tails shook his head.

"I already have my jacket," he assured Cream, and Cream nodded gratefully. They spent the rest of the time walking home in silence.

When Cream reached her house, they both said their goodbyes, and Tails continued walking down the path to his house. Cream knocked on the door, amd Vanilla opened it.

"Hi Cream! How was the party?" she asked with a wide grin on her face. Cream smiled.

"It was great," she replied. She didn't know if that was true or not, but her smile didn't disappear.

"Okay, it's almost eleven. Get ready for bed," Vanilla said.

Cream entered her room, closed the door and sighed. She sat on her bed and buried her face in her hands. Everyone else seemed to get over Cosmo's death, except Tails and her. Did they still think Cosmo was a spy? Or did they never cared about Cosmo? She did not understand how everyone got over Cosmo so quickly. Almost every night she would see both of them in her dreams, reliving the joyous yet painful memories across the galaxy. She sighed, and was about to lie down when she felt something around her kneck.

"Oh no! I forgot to return Tails his scarf!" she exclaimed. She quickly ran down the stairs to her mother, who was sewing a dress.

"Mom, Tails lent me his scarf and I forgot tp return it. Is it okay if I return it now?" she asked. Vanilla thought for a while, before shaking her head.

"It's late, Cream. I'm sure Tails wouldn't want you knocking on his door at this hour. Besides, you can return him the scarf tomorrow," she assured Cream. Cream sighed and nodded. What they didn't know was how much Tails wanted someone to be by his side.

 **Sorry for late updates, school and exams are really stressing me out. I'll write when I have free time and try to upload whenever I can. Thank you :)**


	5. Chapter 5: Literal Time Bomb

Chapter 5: Dome

The sun shone brightly over the hills and the dense trees, marking the start of a new day. Once again, the liveliness of Mobius returned, enchanting it with a glow of vibrance. Clouds covered the sky like a ceiling of cotton, sheltering the ground from the sun's merciless rays.

Cream grabbed the scarf, pet the still sleeping Cheese, said goodbye to her mother and left the house. She wanted to return his scarf first thing in the morning, in case he ended up thinking that she had stolen it on purpose. She approached the bright yellow house and knocked on the door. No answer. She waited and knocked for about half a minute, but got no response.

"Maybe he's at the lab," she thought to herself.

While walking towards the lab, Cream smelt something in the air. She sniffed, and a thick and heavy smell wafted into her nostrils. It smelt like... burning. Her eyes widened in terror when she saw a thick column of black smoke billowing into the air from where Tails' lab was. She sprinted as fast as her little legs could carry her, her mind racing with thoughts.

"Maybe it's just an experiment..." she thought. "But it could be a serious accident! I better check it out!" she said out loud, pushing herself to run faster. When she finally reached the lab, she was greeted with an unpleasant sight.

The metal door to the lab was smashed down, black soot staining the once shiny metal. The X Tornado was chucked at a side, a broken wing hanging from the plane. The inside of the lab was covered by saturated smoke, causing Cream to cough. Tears emerged from her mercilessly stung eyes as she dashed into the smoke, flapping her ears frantically to clear her vision.

"Tail- _coughs_ Tails!" She yelled out into the seemingly never ending abyss of smoke. The ceiling was torn open, and debris were scattered across the floor, like a box of marbles emptied onto the ground. She screamed in fright when a metal pillar collapsed right next to her, missing her by an inch. Some of his inventions looked as though they had been hit by a wrecking ball, while the ones lucky enough to survive were coated with a thick layer of dark grey soot. Despite the dangers surrounding her, she continued to look around desperately, trying to find her friend. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted yellow lying on the floor.

"Tails!" she cried out, rushing next to him. He was lying on the floor gasping for air. His once bright yellow fur was now infested by patches of dirt, and fresh red blood was oozing out of his left arm. He felt something pushing at him, and a familiar voice filled his ears. He mustered enough strength to turn towards the direction of the familiar voice, only to see Cream kneeling next to him, shaking his shoulders.

"Cr...Cream..." Tails tried to say inbetween gasps for air. Cream quickly wrapped her hand around his.

"It's okay... let's get out-" she was cut off by a loud crashing noise. The next thing she knew, the dull black smoke was replaced with a blinding white light. She squinted at the sudden change, and when her eyes refocused, she realised they were now encased.

"Why... why did you have to come... Cream," Tails said, choking as he tried to get up. "Egg... Eggman... he hijacked... the lab..." he continued as Cream denied his attempt to get up, helping him lie back down on the cold, soot-stained metal floor. He coughed out a string of blood and grabbed his left arm in pain. Cream was in tears, not because of the smoke anymore, but seeing Tails in so much pain. She quickly used his scarf to bandage his gaping wound.

"Sorry, Tails... I just wanted to return your scarf... I never thought it would end up being a bandage," Cream said, trying to lighten up the mood. Tails chuckled.

"It's fine..." he said. The only thing that surrounded them was silence, and white that was a tad bit too pristine for their eyes. They stayed like that for about a minute, when suddenly, a hologram appeared from thin air. Almost instantly, that notoriously sickening laughter filled their prison as his face emerged on the hologram.

" _Ho ho ho ho!_ Looks like a lucky catch today, doesn't it?" Eggman said, straightening his mustach. Cream gritted her teeth in anger.

"What do you think you're doing? Let us out now! Tails needs help!" she yelled at him. All he did was laugh again, his overweight body shaking vigourously in his chair.

"Sure... I will... after Sonic surrenders! Now that I have two of his friends, he'll have to do what I tell him to... or else..." as he finished his speech, a holographic clock appeared, projected by a small grey device. 12.34pm. "After two hours, if Sonic doesn't surrender, this dome will be filled with deadly nerve gas. What a slow and painful way to die young, don't you think?" he chuckled at his unfunny joke as he spun his chair around. He pressed a few buttons and turned back, facing the two young children with a sinister smile.

"Hello Sonic! I know you can hear me!" Eggman said into a microphone. Tails and Cream both noticed that the sounds wasn't from inside the dome, it came from outside. He was announcing this to the whole of Mobius.

"I have two of your little friends here. If you don't meet me at the same spot we fought last time... they die a slow and painful death. Trust me... it will be breathtaking..." Once again, he laughed at his own joke, causing Cream to roll her eyes. "So what is it going to be? You surrender, I take over Mobius, or the two most useless imps on your team die?" Ending off with a laugh, he turned off the transmitter.

"Now," he said. "You two just sit back and relax..." And the hologram disappeared. Just then, Cream heard Tails groaning. He sat up and shook his head in anger.

"How... dare he call us useless..." he said in a monotone whisper that somehow managed to convey his anger like magic. Cream sighed and sat next to him.

"You may not be useless... but I sure am," she said, sighing. Every time, she didn't do much. In fact, she almost did nothing at all most of the time. If there was one member the team could do without, it was her. Tails shook his head, ignoring the searing pain at the side of his neck.

"Don't... say that. You help a lot... Also, now's not the time for... epiphany... How about we show Eggman wh... what we can do, eh?" he said. Cream nodded.

"Can you pass me that hologram device over there?" Tails asked, smirking. Cream nodded.

 **12.44pm**

"It's clearly a trap!" the red echidna yelled at Sonic.

"We can all see that!" Amy yelled back. "You're not the only one here who's worried!"

"You should learn to control your temper, lady!" he shouted back, his hands balling into fists. Amy pulled out her Piko Piko Hammer.

"You're one to talk!" She shouted back, an aura of anger enveloping her.

"You two! Stop already!" Sonic yelled, jumping in between the duo. "We need to find a way to rescue Tails and Cream, not waste our time quarelling!"

"I say we go straight in, destroy that dome, and then defeat Eggman!" Knuckles said, waving his fist in the air.

"I say we set up an ambush!" Amy said.

"What kind o-"

"Enough!" Sonic shouted in anger, silencing the both of them. He massaged his aching temples, trying to come up with the best approach for the current situation. If Tails and Cream were to die to Eggman, no one would ever forgive him, and neither would he.

"Knuckles," Sonic finally spoke. "You stay around when I'm confronting Eggman. Amy, you go and free Tails and Cream from the dome." Both Knuckles and Amy nodded.

"Well then, let's get going. We've got some Eggs to smash!"

 **12.58pm**

"Where did you get that screwdriver from?" Cream asked as Tails screwed a nail into a piece of the dismantled holograph machine.

"I always keep one with me," he said, screwing in another nail. "You never know when you're going to need one." The scarf had managed to stop the bleeding of the wound, and Tails was in better condition now. The holograph device now looked like a railgun, just a lot bulkier. "Now I just need an energy source strong enough..." he mumbled and looked around the dome. It was totally empty. Tails sighed, shook his head and kicked the device across the room. It slammed onto the dome, smashing into bits and pieces of junk metal. He grabbed his head in frustration and plopped himself onto the hard ground. Cream stood at one side, watching Tails. His fingernails were digging into his dirty forehead, just light enough so that no blood was drawn. She knew she had to step in now, because she didn't want Tails to hurt himself again, and because being stuck in a dome with a berserk fox didn't sound too great. She walked up to Tails and sat down next to him.

"It's okay, Tails. I'm sure Sonic would have a plan to rescue us," Cream reassured.

"But what if he doesn't?" Tails replied softly, his eyes fixated onto the black floor.

"He always does," Cream tried to reassure him, but he just shook his head and buried his face into his almost completely grey hands.

"Every single time we get into trouble, we wait helplessly for Sonic. We really are useless, aren't we..." he muttered to himself. Cream sighed. Tears were welling up in Tails' eyes as he looked around the empty dome.

"Thanks to me, we don't know what time it is," he said. Cream noticed a tear roll down his muzzle. She quickly shook her head and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"You were just try-"

"Oh my gosh just shut up already," he grumbled, pushing her hand off his shoulder. Cream was startled by the sudden force. Tails was acting up again, but she didn't know if comforting him now was the right thing to do. They were trapped in a literal time bomb, and they didn't know when it would go off, or whether someone would come and save them. She also felt like how Tails did - frustrated, useless, hopeless, but she just didn't express it. Tails' ears were flattened against his head, and his fingernails were now digging into his arms as he leaned against the wall, legs crossed in helplessness, with his ocean blue eyes were glimmering from the thick layer of tears over it. "Everything goes wrong with me around..."

"No it doesn't!" Cream said, almost declaring as she stood up "Today is just an unlucky day. We'll get through it." Tails looked up to her. His pathetic eyes, completely devoid of hope, brightened slightly as he stared into her defiant, chocolate eyes. "We will make it, Tails."

 **1.09pm**

"I'm here, Eggman! Now let my friends go!" Sonic yelled out at the flying fortress hovering in the air, about ten metres above him. Wicked laughter filled the air as the click of a loudspeaker turning on was heard. Before he knew it, a large gun appeared on top of the fortress, firing a blinding purple laser at Sonic. A purple ray of energy surrounded him. It felt as though his energy was being sucked from him, leaving his body like streams of water.

"Ho ho ho ho! I will let your friends go, Sonic! Once I drain all your power, kill you and build my empire on Mobius! My dream has finally been fufilled! Any last words Sonic?" Eggman said over the speakers. Everyone from the nearby town had evacuated the moment they saw the shadow of Eggman's fortress cast upon the ground. Animals scurried away in fear, leaving a lonely patch of trees nearby. Sonic was stuck in an energy bubble, getting his life sucked out of him bit by bit. However, his smile stayed on his face.

"Ye..s..." he said weakly, causing Eggman to raise an eyebrow. "Dream on!"

The next moment, a red echidna lept out of a tree, flying straight towards the gun. The gun was now chunks of scrap metal falling off the fortress.

"Thought you could win that easily, Eggman?" Knuckles said as Sonic stretched in relief, free from the vampire ray. Eggman chuckled, much to their surprise.

"Actually, I didn't!" He said. A huge claw protracted from the side of the fortress and picked Knuckles up, squeezing his sides tightly. He struggled in ths vice grop, waving his arms frantically while trying to pry away the steel clawd digging at his ribcage.

"That's not nice, Eggman!" Sonic yelled, before spindashing towards the claw. However, before he could reach it, a huge tube came out of the fortress, causing Sonic to spindash into it. Eggman laughed evilly as the claw dropped Knuckles into the cube as well.

"Everything's going to plan! I will finally take over Mobius! Ho ho ho ho!" He laughed to himself as the fortress took off. He spun his chair around and faced a big red button on his panel of controls. "Now, I'm sure the children are eager for an _early detonation..._ "

 **1.22pm**

"Tails! Cream! Do you hear me?!?!" Amy yelled. At first their was no reply, but soon enough she heard a voice.

"Amy? Is that you?" a partially muffled voice replied. Amy sighed in relief.

"Yes, it's me Cream! Don't worry, I'll get you out. Is Tails fine?" she asked.

"Yes," Cream lied. It wasn't entirely a lie, he wasn't injured or anything, but he was definitely shattered inside. The next thing the two of them heard were poundings onto the dome. After a while, the pounding stopped, and panting was heard.

"This dome has some kind of energy shield over it. I can't break it!" Amy complained in exasperation. She tried a few more times, and all her efforts were futile. All of a sudden, a few beeps were heard. All three of them froze. The beeping was high-pitched, and was steady, at first. It started to gain speed, and soon it was so fast that it was almost one sound.

"Oh no..." Tails muttered.

Throughout the whole of Mobius, a blinding light was seen, followed by a massive explosion near the beach. A huge mushroom of smoke rose, accompanied by an ear-splitting boom that reverberated all across the land. Before long, dead silence bestowed upon the place. The fire, the smoke, the sound, everything was gone.


	6. Chapter 6: You Will Pay

Chapter 6: Let Go

"No... it can't be..." Sonic was frozen to the spot as he stared out of the only window in his prison. Knuckles sat at the side, head hung low. The smoke cleared up, and what was once his little brother's second home was now an empty pit of dread. Nothing hit Sonic harder than this. Tails, Cream and possibly Amy just died. His beloved little brother he met three years ago, growing up together and going on countless adventures together. That bright little fox, swinging his two tails when he was happy, and drooping them when he was sad. His two eyes constantly sparkling with the hunger for more knowledge, and his cute little face, with three locks of hair hanging over his face. He would never hear his innocent voice ever again. His little buddy was dead.

Sonic fell to his knees, one hand pressed flat against the smudged window. His eyes were wide open, staring down at the black metal floor below him. Cream, the cheerful, bubbly and comforting one on the team. She was there whenever anyone felt down, to lift their spirits and to chase away their sadness. Both she and Tails were children. They did not deserve such a cruel fate.

And Amy. Had he been wrong all along to constantly force her away from him? To run from her, or to leave without saying anything? Making her worry about his well-being all the time? All the times she had openly told him that she loved him, yet he was too cowardly to express his feeling towards her properly. He shook his head in utter disappointment in himself. He had failed to save three people on his team. A tear rolled down his cheek as his hand slowly slid off the window with a loud screech and onto the floor. Knuckles mumbled something under his breath, and the next moment, his fist was driven into the heavy metal wall, creating a deep dent.

"Now's not the time to mourn!" he yelled out. Sonic turned his head slowly and looked at him. "Our friends have died to Eggman. It's only right for us to avenge them!"

Sonic thought about Knuckles' words. He was right indeed. Mourning wasn't going to get them out of their cage. They had to find a way out, and stop Eggman's evil schemes, as they always did. Eggman killed his friends. And now, he was going to pay. He wiped a tear from his eye as he slowly got up. His fists were clenched so tightly his arms were trembling.

"You're right," he whispered to Knuckles. A blackish purple aura started to surround him. Knuckles watched in awe as Sonic's azure blue fur slowly became darker. His quills stiffened, threatening to stab anyone who dared to touch them. Sonic turned around to face Knuckles. His face was that of pure rage, and adrenaline pumping through his heart and throughout his whole body. An almost sinister smile crept onto his face as he let out a chuckle. "Let's go."

 _About an hour later_

He groaned in pain and tireness. Where was he? He didn't want to open his eyes. It felt so comfy, like waking up on a Saturday morning in his cozy sheets, as the irritating sunlight poured in through the windows. He tried to move, and realised that he could, but not much. He must be on the other side, he thought. One of the things he had always wanted to find out in life was how it felt on the other side. Now that he was there, he had a new set of worries. Is it dark? Is there any other life? Will he be lonely forever? Luckily, he thought, he Cream and Amy would probably be there with him. And so would someone else.

 _I have finally joined you, Cosmo_ , he thought as a smile found its way to his lips. He would finally see her face again. That pale shade of white, with two navy blue eyes studded at the perfect spots. Her lack of nose was made up for by the two beautiful flower buds that tragically only bloomed moments before her death. Her green hair that sat nicely on her head, with her white and green dress, decorated with the fibres of the leaves that made it. The thought of seeing her once again gave Tails the sheer determination to wake up.

Mustering enough strength, he opened his eyes. Wood. Birch wooden planks attached to each other with nails. He raised an eyebrow. Was this his coffin? But that thought instantly disappeared when he saw a light bulb hanging from the ceiling, causing him to squint at the sudden exposure to the blinding light. While letting his eyes adjust, he tried to sit up, but was too tired to do so. Was he really dead? He tried moving his fingers, and only then did he realise that he wasn't dead. He could feel a soft sheet of fabric caught in between his fingers. He sighed in both relief and disappointment.

He apparently survived the explosion... but how? The last thing he remembered was a blinding flash of light, and then he passed out completely. He used his arms and pushed himself up, groaning in utter tireness as he did this. A sharp pain seared through one of his arms when he managed to get up, causing him to cringe. He looked down and saw that his scarf, now soaked in blood, was still tightly tied around his wound. His fur was much cleaner than earlier on, and his shoes, socks and gloves were removed and placed neatly onto a table next to the bed. He rubbed his eyes and sighed. He was so close, yet so far.

"Cosmo..." he mumbled.

"Is dead." A gruff voice rang out from behind him. He froze. His entire body stiffened as he sat up on the bed, sweat drilling down his face. It took a while before he recognised the voice. He slowly turned around. That sinister shade of black. The blood red stripes on his quills. His usual strict yet relaxed demeanor. That frown that almost looked like a smirk. The light from the bulb reflected from the two golden limiters on his wrists, causing them to sparkle. He slowly stood up from the chair he was sitting on, letting out a small creak from the rusty hinges.

"She's dead," the ebony hedgehog said. Tails' eyes widened.

"Sh...Shadow?" he whispered.

"You slept for quite some time," he said, walking to the other side of the room to turn on a fan. Tails instantly felt better from the blast of cool wind blowing onto him.

"How am I alive?" he asked. Shadow scoffed.

"I saved you and your two little friends. You're welcome," Shadow said. Tails had millions of questions racing through his head. How is Shadow still alive? Why did he save them from the explosion?

"Where's Cream and Amy?" Tails asked, attempting to get off the bed. But the moment his feet touched the rough wooden floor, his sides hurt, forcing him to lie back down on the mattress.

"You were injured badly, so the Chaos Control must have taken a toll on you. Don't worry about Cream and Amy, they're around," Shadow said. Tails sighed and rested his head on a pillow that's presence was only realised by him then. He looked up to the ceiling as Shadow walked back to the chair and sat down. "You should really get some rest. If you go find Sonic in this shape, you'll only be a greater hinderance than you already are."

Tails was insulted by that comment, but he didn't dwell on it much. He was still a bit dazed. Since when was Shadow this nice to anyone? He closed his dry and tired eyes and loosened up. He knew he needed the rest, but he somehow couldn't sleep. He lay there for about a minute, with Shadow silently watching over him from the other end of the room.

"Talk to me," he suddenly said, causing Tails to open eyes. "I know you can't sleep. Tell me what's on your mind."

Tails had never seen Shadow talk like this. Just an hour ago Tails would think of Shadow as the worst counselor for feelings ever. But all of sudden, he felt ad though Shadow was the only one whom he could talk to, which almost made no sense. He was, after all, the first person to ever ask him about his feelings ever since the Metarex.

"I don't know how I feel," he mumbled. Just a few moments ago, he actually thought he was going to see Cosmo again. He was so close, that he could almost hear her breathing. He could see her smile, her two innocent eyes, her two rose buds sitting at both sides of her head. The smooth, silky green hair, just long enough to droop over her sides. Her smile, little yet enough to brighten up his day. He thought he would see her again, and now that he realised he wouldn't, he didn't know whether to be happy or devastated.

"You're thinking about her," Shadow declared. Tails closed his eyes again and nodded slowly. "You have to realise that she's gone."

"But... I killed her..." Tails whispered under his breath, just loud enough for Shadow to hear. Tears were forming in his eyes as he remembered the last few moments he had with Cosmo.

"Look at it this way. You saved the galaxy," Shadow said. Tails shook his head, sobbing.

"I could have done something else... I should have been able to save her..." Tails paused for a while, and suddenly his ears flattened against his head. " _You_ should have saved her..." he hissed. "The almighty controller of Chaos, yet you couldn't even bring back one person."

Shadow was taken aback by the sudden hostility presented by Tails. He looked like a predator, ready to pounce on an unsuspecting prey any time.

"Sonic and I did the best we could. You did too," Shadow tried to reassure Tails, but deep down he felt a tinge of guilt for not being able to save Cosmo with both Sonic and his unrivaled Chaos. All that was left was a seed, and nobody was certain as to what the seed would grow into.

"No..." Tails whispered, shaking his head. A tear rolled down his white muzzle and onto the dry wooden floor. "All I did was press a goddamn button."

"That's more than what many others could have been able to do in a situation like that. You are brave, Tails, and I'm sure Sonic would want you to know that." When he finished that sentence, Tails loosened up a bit. Then, Shadow got up, opened a door and went to another room. Tails could only barely see what was going on through a small crack in the old door. Shadow looked like he was checking on something, but Tails could only roughly see the shape. It was a black cylinder that had a wide top and a small bottom, and it had steam rising from the top. HeHeould hear him grab something metal, and he lifted the cylinder carefully by its edges. He pushed open the door with his shoulder. He was holding a bowl of noodles and metal chopsticks.

"Eat up," he said to Tails, who was staring at him with confusion. He tried to ignore the look as he set the bowl on the wooden table, and gently rested the chopsticks on the bowl with a soft clatter. "You probably haven't eaten for hours."

"Why are you suddenly being so nice?" Tails asked, staring at the bowl of noodles.

"Why not? Do you not want the noodles?" Shadow grumbled at Tails' confusion, which he mistook for unappreciation.

Tails was about to say no, but when the fragrant aroma of the soup wafted into his nostrils, he realised how hungry he was. He propped himself up with help from his arms. The pain felt less severe, and he found himself being able to sit up straight without much pain.

"No, but just a week ago, you were giving me one hell of a beating," Tails grumbled at the memory of Shadow kicking and punching him all over the ship, and his helpless body crashing into the walls like a ragdoll.

"That beating wasn't meant for you," Shadow said in a low, monotone voice. Tails' heart felt heavy as he remembered the look of fear on Cosmo's face. Her eyes were bursting with terror, and her lips tightened, with sweat rolling down her face every step they ran. Crawling through vents, taking multiple elevators, activating countless security features. He had sworn to protect her, but he ended up being the one to kill her. Tails shook his head vigorously, trying to get Cosmo out of his head. Ever since her death, he had linked just about everything anyone said or anything that ever happened back to her. She was almost like a curse, but Tails didn't know if he truly wanted to get rid of it. He lifted the bowl of noodles with one hand and held the chopsticks in the other. Maybe a warm bowl of noodles would get his mind of things for a while.

Shadow kept silent as Tails finished up the last bits of noodles. When he was done, he put the bowl with the chopsticks in it neatly on the bedside table. "You have to let go," Shadow finally said. Tails shook his head and sighed.

"I'm trying to, but at the same time..." Tails hesitated, before continuing, "It feels wrong. I promised to protect her, and she promised to come live with me on Mobius... but look where we are now. Or at least one of us."

Shadow stayed silent has he listened to the young fox pour out his emotions. "It's just not fair..." he said, with tears in his eyes. "Why did it have to be her? Why couldn't someone else defeat the Metarex?" Tears were rolling down his muzzle for the third time that day. "I want to forget her. I want to move on but I just _can't_..."

"Moving on from someone doesn't mean forgetting that person completely," Shadow said. Tails sobbing stopped for a moment. He had never thought of it that way. He wanted life to move on, but he didn't want to move on without Cosmo. And yet, now he has to move on _from_ Cosmo. It felt too much to ask from him.

"What should I do?" he asked in a soft voice.

"You are aware that when she grew older, she would become a tree, right?" Shadow asked. Tails didn't know whether Shadow was helping or not. Of course he knew, Cosmo told him all about her race. But now that Shadow had brought it up so bluntly, he wondered if he was just downright stupid to let himself fall in love with someone like that. His hands went up to his head and he groaned, cursing under his breath. Shadow was surprised, but pretended not to hear.

"For the sake of the galaxy, she sacrificed herself to her inevitable fate. If you really did love her, for her sake, you would face everyday with a smile, cherishing the very ground you walk on. You should be grateful for still being able to live day by day. If she were still here, she wouldn't want you to waste away like this, Tails." Shadow said as he got up. He was about to leave when Tails called him back.

"Wait!" Shadow turned around slowly. Tails was looking at him with both confusion and enlightenment in his eyes. "Why are you suddenly like this?"

Shadow chuckled at the question. "During my space journey, I met someone. She had a dream, but had no one to fulfill it for her. All her people lost hope and surrendered to the Metarex. I never talked to someone like that before, full of hope when the world around her was a desert of death. She didn't take too long to join it, though." He paused at this line and sighed. The room was filled with stifling silence for a few seconds. "I learned a lot from her. I wonder if Maria was like her..." he trialed off, deep in thought about a person he had no memories of. Tails nodded. His tears had dried, and he seemed a lot more relaxed.

"Thank you, Shadow," he said. Shadow gave him a small smile. "You can leave whenever you want. This isn't my house anyways." And with that, he dashed off, leaving nothing but a trial of dust behind. Tails couldn't help but smile.

 _Meamwhile_

Thick grey smoke billowed out of the flying fortress as Eggman frantically tried to take off in his Egg Mobile. Sonic, or at least what seemed like him, and Knuckles destroyed every single Badnik, defense system and heavy metal doors in the fortress. The once shiny red exterior was now slowly being devoured by flames.

"Start it up now!" Decoe yelled in despair as another explosion happened at the collosal wing. The entire fortress was wobbling unsteadily in mid air, and it was losing altitude extremely quickly. However, before Eggman could flick the switch, a fast zap of dark purple passed through the body of the Egg Mobile. His eyes widened in horror as he felt himself slowly sliding downwards. Sonic had made a clean cut across the Egg Mobile. The Egg Mobile looked exactly like an apple sliced with a katana, except with sparks bursting in all directions.

"You will pay for this..." he heard a deep voice. In a split second, he was held up high by his neck. He gasped and struggled as he tried to break free from the vice grip, but his 300 IQ brain knew that it was impossible. He closed his eyes, ready ti accept his fate.

"Sonic! We gotta go now! The plane's gonna crash!" Knuckles yelled out. Sonic looked at Eggman's pathetic face for two seconds, before throwing him down into the floor, smashing him through layers of thick and heavy metal. Knuckles nodded to Sonic, and flung Sonic to the faraway shore. He then jumped off, just when the entire fortress blew up. He took one last look back at the pieces of debris falling into the ocean, creating huge splashes of water. The sun was just setting, the glaring orange rays shining onto the ocean.

"So long, Eggman," he said to himself.

 _Shift_

Tails opened the door and entered what looked like a kitchen. Metal pots and pans together with plastic chopping boards hung from the walls. A sink with onion peels clogging it up was stationed at the far end of the room, and the place reeked of vinegar. Tails didn't care where he was, he just wanted to get some fresh air. He spotted a ladder leaning against a wall, with an unlocked trapped door at the top end. He climbed the ladder, which creaked with every step, and lightly pushed open the trapdoor with one hand. He peered out and saw an awfully familiar house. It didn't take him long to recognise where he was. He was in Amy's house.

"Since when did Amy have an underground room? And why did Shadow teleport me here?"

He used his tired arms to push himself out of the stuffy room in the ground. The lights in the house were off, and orange sunlight from the distant sunset spilled into the windows. He rubbed the sides of his head with his palms as he walked around the house. He looked into every room, hoping to find someone, just anyone, to be with him in the house. No one was home. Loneliness surrounded him in the darkness of the house.

He sighed as he pushed open the front door. The familiar sea view came into sight. However, he noticed that something was off. There were multiple dark patches in the water, some as big as fallen mountains, some as small as coffee tables. He frowned at the sight. Probably an oil spill. But oil floats. He may have been a mechanical genius, but he didn't have much knowledge on water pollution. However, when he looked closer, he saw a tiny sillhouette gliding across the horizon and towards the beach. He squinted his eyes in disbelief. Without hesitation, he slammed the door behind him, and dashed straight for the beach.

By the time he reached the beach, he was panting heavily, and sweat was dripping down his fur profusely. His shoes sunk into the sand with every step as he scanned the shore for signs of anything crashing. Further down the beach, there was a huge crater, so big that it was probably visible from a satellite. There was no other sound than the light rythmic crashing of waves onto the sand. The crater was empty, and mini piles of sand were spotted even two meters from the huge hole. Something _really_ heavy must have landed here. Tails knelt down and examined the colossal abnormality. The structure showed that the object that crashed was small, but was boosted by a massive force, almost as strong as a small meteor. Tails frowned. He didn't know of anything that matched the characteristics he had identified. Just then, he saw two figures sitting by the beach. One had hid feet in the water, while the other folded his feet inwards, as though he were trying to avoid it. It took less than a second for Tails to recognise who they were...

"Sonic!" A voice rang out behind him. He turned around and saw a little cub fox, his fur painted orange by the setting sun. Three locks of fur dangled from his head, and he had two bushy tails waving behind him. He wore sneakers similar to his own, and a loose glove on each hand. Sonic's eyes widened in shock. The fox jumped onto Sonic and hugged him tightly, almost making him fall over. His warm fur pressed against his own, and his breath brushed against his shoulder lightly. His heart was pounding against his chest, richocheting vigorously in his ribcage. Sonic wasn't dreaming. Tails was alive, and was in his arms that very moment.

"Tails..." he said, eyes still wide open. Tails let go, giving Sonic some space and air to breathe. Knuckles also stared at him, dumbfounded. "...how are you alive?"

Tails giggled lightly. "You won't believe saved us at the very last moment."

Sonic chuckled and shook his head. "Try me."


	7. AN

**Hi guys, sorry if you thought this was the next chapter, but it's just an author's note :(** **I'm currently in my exam period, and it ends next Wednesday. I haven't really had the time to write any chapters, and I apologise for that.** **Don't worry, I'll try to get a chapter up by next Friday, and I assure you guys that you can expect much more frequent updates to this book.** **Thank you :)** **btw Buy Trench and Stream Trench**


	8. Chapter 7: For a While

Chapter 7: For a While

 _30 September_ , _Cream's_ Diary. Just _earlier today, Amy, Tails and I were saved from a very unlikely person. We all thought he was dead. Not only that, it was not like him to save us in a situation like that. He usually doesn't like getting involved in things like this. After saving us, he brought us to Amy's house. I was passed out then, and when I woke up. Amy brought me to the nearby ice cream shop. Tails was still passed out, but Shadow said that he would be fine and even volunteered to look after him while we were gone. He changed so much in the past week while he was gone._ _When we got back to Amy's house, however, Tails was gone. Mom allowed me to stay at Amy's for the night. I hope Tails is safe at home right now as I am writing this. He was probably the one who got affected the most by Cosmo's death. No one's grief, not even mine, would be able to surpass his. I hope he understands that his friends will always have his back whenever he needs them._ _One thing that still puzzles me is how Shadow got back here even if he had survived the explosion. He was in the Metarex galaxy, and he did not have a spaceship to take him back here. Oh well, I guess some things remain a mystery._ _Looking back at the entire journey through galaxies, I realised that I had grown a lot from my experience aboard the Blue Typhoon. Tails even assigned me as the person in charge of the shields and weapons! It was my first time being assigned such an important role in Sonic's team, and I was glad that I did not screw up as much as I expected myself to. Meeting Cosmo also changed my view on family. I never got to know my father. Mom always says that he is on vacation and will come back soon, but I am starting to feel that he was gone for good. Mom and my friends were the only family I ever had. I barely felt close to the humans on Earth. There was just this barrier that prevented me from accepting them, let alone being family with them. I am extremely grateful to the Thorndyke family for everything they had done for me during my time on Earth, but I can't see them any more than friends. I would never have thought that I would accept a plant as my family. I never had any siblings in my life, and Cosmo gave me the experience of having an older sister. She was always there for me whenever I was down or needed help, and she was always there to listen to my troubles. She apologised for every single mistake she made. I guess she didn't reallly understand how nobody's perfect, but anyone can accept another person's flaws. I wish she was still here..._ _Amy's calling for me to go to bed from downstairs. I guess I'll stop here for today. See you tomorrow._ Love, _Cream_.

 **(I wanted to do proper formatting but the app auto compresses all the lines together... sigh)**

For the whole day, Sonic was sighing to himself, daydreaming with a frown on his face. This confused Tails greatly. He knew that Sonic would be schocked upon knowing that Shadow was still alive, but he didn't see why it would affect him this much.

"Sonic?" Tails called out for Sonic for the second time across the lunch table. This finally caught his attention as he turned to look at Tails, startled.

"Yes?" he replied, trying to stay calm. Tails shook his head.

"I know, it's pretty shocking, isn't it. We all thought he was dead," Tails pretended to reassure. He knew there was something else, but he just didn't know what. Sonic sighed and nodded.

"Yep, quite the shock isn't it," he said, eyes staring at the plate in front of him. Tails raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I wonder if anything else shocking would happen soon," Tails prodded, trying to get an answer. But Sonic simply shrugged.

"Who knows?" he replied, eyes still staring down. Tails rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Sonic, what are you not telling me?" Tails asked. Being direct was seemingly the only way to get the answer. Sonic's eyes shifted from the plate to Tails and widened.

"Urm... nothing!" he said with a chuckle, pretending to laugh it off. "Oh, how's Cream and Amy?"

"They're fine," Tails said. "And by the way, that was a horrible attempt to try and change the topic."

Sonic sighed. Knowing there was no way out of this, he shook his head. "Well... you see... I thought the three of you died in the explosion."

"Mmhm," Tails nodded, staring intently at Sonic's face. Sonic felt uncomfortable by this, but carried on.

"And... um... I don't know what got over me... but I just... well I was in Eggman's ship and-"

"Just get to the point," Tails said, eyelids slowly drooping with annoyance.

"I killed Eggman!" Sonic blurted out, his hands almost immediately shooting up and covering his mouth. Tails' eyes widened.

"You what!?!?" he asked in disbelief. Sonic just sat there, hands over mouth, like a stoned clown. Tails rubbed his temples, which felt as though they were being drilled into at that very moment. Eggman was dead. D. E. A. D. Although he was their arch nemesis, having Eggman out of his life was just strangely unacceptable. When Sonic finally regained his composure, his hands fell back down to his sides.

"I don't know what got over me... I just saw... _black_ ," Sonic tried to explain, but he himself didn't know what had happened to him. It felt somewhat... _familiar..._

"You killed Eggman!?!?" Tails screeched, his hands grasping his head, still in utter shock. Sonic was trying his best to calm Tails down. A panicked Tails was not the most pleasant sight.

"Hey! Maybe he's still alive! He might have escaped!" Sonic reassured. This seemed to work a bit, and Sonic was surprised something as stupid as that actually worked. Tails took a deep breath, and his body loosened up.

"Maybe..." he said to himself. After about a minute or so of listing several ways that Eggman might have escaped, Tails was finally calmed. The two of them had their own conversations over lunch, and soon, their plates were empty.

"Oh, I forgot. I haven't seen Amy and Cream since yesterday. I think I'll check on them now," Tails said. Sonic then realised the same applied to him.

"Hey, me too. Let's go together," he suggested, and Tails nodded.

They first went to Cream's house, and Vanilla said that Cream went over to Amy's last night. They went to Amy's house and knocked. Amy opened the door, and when she saw Sonic, she instantly pounced forward onto him, causing him to lose his balance and fall over.

"Sonic!!!! You're okay!!!" she exclaimed, landing kisses all over an unwilling Sonic's face. Sonic tried frantically to use his arms to push her off him, but it was no match for her crushing force onto him. Tails sighed, but couldn't help but to smile. At least Amy's fine. He helped himself into the house, and saw Cream sitting on the couch, with a bandage around her arm. A news programme was playing on the TV, which surprised Tails, since Cream never liked news.

"Hey Tails!" Cream beamed at Tails, waving at him with her fine arm. Tails frowned and took a seat next to her, inspecting her wound. His hands involuntarily reached out to touch the bandaged area, and when he did, Cream flinched.

"Sorry," he said, blushing at his lack of self control. Cream smiled and shook her head. Tails took a closer look at the bandage. The wound seemed quite large, and a patch of the white bandage was soaked in crimson dried blood. Just then, Cream cleared her throat, causing Tails to realise how close he was to her arm. His face turned cherry red as he quickly backed away, smiling while scratching the back of his head. It seemed that the muscle tissue was sprained badly, and the opening wound was disturbingly big.

"I may have something to fix this," Tails said to Cream. When he infiltrated the military base on Earth to save Cream, he had grabbed a device on the way out, and learnt that it was a prototype particle accelerator. He then stabilized the acceleration, allowing the acceleration to be controlled. Cream's eyes lit up, and she nodded rapidly. Both of them got off the couch and went out the front door.

"Hey Sonic, I'm taking Cream to my lab for a while," Tails told Sonic. Amy was still on Sonic, and Sonic had clearly given in, allowing Amy to sweet talk and snuggle her muzzle into his chest.

"Okay Tails, meet you at my place later?" Sonic asked inbetween wheezes. Tails giggled slightly at this sight, and he nodded. He then grabbed Cream's hand, and they both headed for his lab.

When the two of them reached the lab, Cream saw that there were about five robots lifting massive chunks of metal and attaching them to various parts of the lab. What was once a complete mess of debris only hours ago was already almost as good as new. Tails pushed a button on the wall, and the floor in front of them opened to reveal a hole. With Cream staring in awe and Tails watching proudly, a large metal elevator rose up from the hole, and welcomed the two of them with open doors.

"I built a bunker made purely out of solidified Biolizard DNA under my lab in case something like this were to happen. Almost nothing can destroy it," Tails explained, gesturing for Cream, who was still dazed, to enter the elevator. He followed suit and pressed a button, causing the doors to shut. A faint buzzing and the sound of the floor closing above them could be heard, and before long, the elevator had stopped. Tails was grinning wildly. He couldn't wait to show Cream what he had down there (pun intended). Expectedly, when the doors opened, Cream's already hanging jaw dropped even more.

The room wasn't small, but it wasn't big either. The floor, walls and ceiling were made of a scaly orange material, and it was a bit challenging to walk there. There was a small workbench that had toolboxes stacked on top of one another, each with its own label. The walls were lined with computer screens, showing graphs that only a genius could understand. Piles of files filled with blueprints stood at each corner of the room, threatening to topple over at any second. Tails walked over to the workbench, whistling a tune with his head held high while Cream stared blankly at the many graphs. When he found the toolbox with the label "Modified Objects", he removed it from its stack and took out a medium-size cube with buttons on its frame. He signalled for Cream to come over, and when she did, Tails pressed a purple button, causing the machine to emit a strange orange glow. He took off the bandage, causing Cream to wince. He then aimed what seemed to be a phone camera at it and pressed another button. The wound started to patch itself up. The dark red blood slowly started to disappear, and her skin and fur grew back over the spot, looking as though the injury never existed. Cream felt a furious itch clawing away at the area, but she managed to control herself from scratching it. When the process was over, however, the itch was completely gone. Cream was amazed at what Science could achieve.

"Thanks, Tails!" Cream squealed in delight, wrapping her arms around Tails, unaware of his once again red face. She was only slightly shorter than Tails, her head resting on his shoulder during the hug. The few-second long hug felt like a few-minutes long hug for Tails, and when she let go, he suddenly felt an unpleasant coldness envelope him. Cream took another look around the lab, and she suddenly gasped.

"Tails... is that a Chaos Emerald!?" she exclaimed, rushing over to a small glass case sitting on the workbench. Tails removed the glass cover and picked up the emerald.

"Looks real, doesn't it? It's actually a synthetic Chaos Emerald. It has the same amount of Chaos energy as a real one, and it is completely foolproof," he explained, smiling to himself and spinning the emerald in his hand.

"How did you learn how to make it?" Cream asked.

"I translated the Metarex data from their base which _Cosmo and I collected..._ " His previous sense of pride vanished, instantly replaced by an overwhelming sense of shame the moment her name left his mouth. He sighed and leaned onto a wall, his back slowly sliding down the rough texture until his was sitting on the ground, grabbing his knees. His eyes stared at the empty ground in the middle of his legs, a tear rolling down his cheek. Cream felt heavy as well. She sat next to him and put an arm around his shoulder.

"Think of something else. She wouldn't want you crying over her, would she?" Cream whispered softly. Tails tried to take her advice, but at that moment, his head was saturated with Cosmo. The person he loved. The person he killed.

"I don't know what's wrong with me..." Tails said softly, his lips trembling.

"There's nothing wrong with you," Cream said firmly. "You need to confide in your friends more. We know that you need to, that's why we will always be here for you."

"You don't know what I need," Tails said, grunting slightly. "Even I don't know what I need..."

Cream closed her eyes and racked her brains. Tails had to stop getting these episodes and flashbacks about Cosmo. It was not good for him, and not good for the people around him. Just then, an idea popped up in her head. She stood up, helped a surprised Tails to his feet and lead him to the elevator.

"I know what you need," Cream said, a tinge of excitement in her voice. "You need to relax for a while. You need a vacation!"

 _Later in the day_

"She wants to take you on a vacation!?" Sonic said, almost choking on his chilli dog. Tails nodded.

"I've tried everything else to get Cosmo out of my head, but nothing seems to be working. A vacation, though, might just work," Tails explained. "But do I really want her out of my head...?"

Sonic sighed. "Tails, we all feel grief. She was so young, as young as you. She didn't deserve to die. But she wanted to. She wanted to save the universe. She wanted to sacrifice herself for everyone else. She wanted everyone to be happy," Sonic said firmly. "She will always be a piece of you, but whether that piece of you is positive or negative is completely up to you."

Tails pondered over what Sonic said. He was right. Forgetting Cosmo was not an option, but remembering her for the right reasons was an, if not the only, available option. He felt dumb about how he had been blaming himself for Cosmo's death. She wanted it, and he fulfilled her wish. This is what she should be remembered for. Tails' face lit up a bit, and a tiny smile crept up to his face.

"Thanks, Sonic," Tails said. Sonic chuckled.

"You have to know we'll always be there for you, Tails. Now go pack up for your vacation. Remember to bring a towel! You wouldn't want to end up like last time we went to the beach," Sonic said and gave Tails a nudgie, causing him to giggle. He went upstairs and started packing.

 _Cream's house_

"Mom, I'll be going on a short vacation this week," Cream said to Vanilla as she entered the house. Vanilla raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Why so sudden?" she asked.

"I'm going with Tails. He really needs a break, and I think a vacation would be ideal for him," Cream explained, causing Vanilla to nod.

"Where are you two going?" she asked.

"We'll just be staying at the villa at the far end of the beach. Tails will be bringing his plane, so if anything happens we can head back here quickly. We'll be staying for about four days," Cream said. Vanilla thought for a while, and nodded.

"Ok, well, you better start packing! And remember to bring your cell phone, if you need anything don't hesitate to call me," Vanilla said, smiling at her daughter. Cream nodded and walked upstaies to her room to start packing.

"I hope Tails gets better by the end of the week," she thought to herself


	9. Chapter 8: Vessel

Chapter 8: Vessel

"You remind me of the Black Wind."

Her words tortured his mind constantly as he buried his face into his pillow, trying to shut them out. This was just one of the numerous sleepless nights he's had, yet everytime, it felt as bad as the first time. Following the voice would be flashes of the only piece of memory he woke up with. Her sparkling blue eyes, her wide smile, her blonde hair and her soft and soothing voice.

Why did Molly remind him of Maria? The two of them were like the two sides of a coin. One killed herself because she had no hope in herself and her planet. One killed herself to save his life. There was seemingly nothing similar between the both of them. After quite a while of light smothering, he sat up and sighed. His eyes were sitting above saggy purple eyebags that blended nicely with his black fur, which was matted by the pillow. He wished he had someone. He never showed it, but he envied Sonic greatly.

Sonic had friends that he could confide in and rely on, while he was alone. Sonic went on numerous adventures with his friends, while he travelled alone. He let his thoughts run wild as he sat on the worn out mattress, enveloped by pitch blackness of the night. Whose house this was, he didn't know. He found it earlier that week, and to his delight, it was unoccupied. The house only had one room, and basic access to water. It didn't even have electricity, tables and chairs and windows. It felt more like a prison than a home.

There was no clock, so he couldn't tell what time it was, but he knew he wasn't going to sit there for the rest of the night. He got off the bed, put on his shoes, and the next moment, he disappeared in a flash, leaving behind a trial of dust.

He rarely ever went for runs like this. Almost every other time he ran, he was either running from something or chasing something. It felt strange to be running without a motive. To him, it was like staring at a blank TV screen, mindlessly waiting for something to pop up despite knowing nothing will. He made about two rounds around the island before he finally came to a stop by a tree near the little house. He sat down, taking in the tranquility of the night. The stars were dim, despite being in the night sky, and the moon shone, desperately trying to push its rays pass the grey clouds enveloping it. The once green grass was now a deep shade of blue, swaying lightly to the breeze. It was times like this he wished he had more of. Times where he could decongest his mind of thoughts that constantly swarmed him. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the tree.

"My, my, looks like someone's taking it slow for once," a voice suddenly said. A voice he did not expect to hear in a long time.

 _Next day_

"Stay safe, Cream," Vanilla said as she stood at the doorway, waving to an excited Cream who was carrying a small backpack. Cream beamed Vanilla.

"I will, mom," she reassured.

"And make sure you have your meals properly," Vanilla added on.

"I will do that too, mom."

"And don't forget to call me if anything happens," Vanilla said again.

"Yes, mom," Cream said, feeling a bit annoyed at her mother's fussing.

"I love you, Cream," Vanilla said, smiling widely. It was only a one week vacation less than two kilometres away from home, yet Vanilla couldn't help but fuss.

"I love you too, Mom," Cream said, hugging Vanilla. After saying their final goodbyes, Cream headed to the villa, pulling her luggage behind her. She didn't know much about the villa, but she had seen it a few times when walking by the beach. The houses had triangular roofs made of logs, and the walls were made of thick bamboo nailed together in neat rows. There were about four windows per room, and the second story had a porch with two sofas and a table. She couldn't see inside, as the windows had purple curtains cloaking them from the inside.

It was a fact that Cream was the one who chose this place for Tails' break, but she had only chosen it because she saw an advertisement for it on TV. It looked like the perfect place for someone to get their mind off life for a moment, and it was cheap. It was also on a beach that both of them were familiar with, so they would at least feel a little at home. She beamed with excitement all the way from her house to the villa. Ever since the incident, she herself also wanted to relax, but it seemed as though everything she did was related to Cosmo. Maybe this was what she needed.

Tails was already waiting at the lobby when Cream arrived. He smiled upon seeing her. The lobby was made of wood, and it was extremely simple with nothing more than a few tables, chairs and a receptionist counter.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," Cream replied. A small awkward silence followed. He was wearing a straw hat with a purple flower perched on the rim, and he was holding a brown suitcase in one hand. In his other hand was a potted plant. No words were needed for Cream to know what, or more specifically _who_ that plant was. Tails seemed to notice her gaze as he turned his eyes to the plant.

"Sorry... I had to bring her along. I didn't want her to be lonely," he said in a quiet voice. Cream noticed that the way he reacted to situations about Cosmo had improved, and he had learned to control his emotions.

"It's alright... I wouldn't want that too. Somethings just stay with you all the time," Cream said with a small chuckle. Tails gave her a weak smile, before turning his head to the receptionist counter.

"I've waited for about twenty minutes and still no receptionist... that's odd," he said rubbing his chin. Cream frowned and craned her neck to look into a room behind the counter. Nobody.

"Well, I made a booking for Hut 3, so I guess we can leave the money on the counter and take the keys?" Cream asked.

"But what if someone takes the money?"

"There doesn't seem to be anyone here, does there."

She was right. The place was completely empty. It was almost completely silent - too silent for comfort. The only sound was the crashing of the waves onto the shore and the rustling of leaves. Tails shrugged.

"Well, I guess we can do that," he said softly, looking around in discomfort. Cream also felt an omnipresent feeling of distress, as though someone was watching them. She shrugged it off as simple paranoia.

Soon, they found their hut. Tails had never seen this place before, and his eyes scanned all over the exterior of the house, almost studying it. When he was finally done, he put the key in the keyhole and turned it, only to realise that the door was unlocked. Cream raised an eyebrow.

"That's strange..." she mumbled as the both of them set their luggage down in the corner of a room. Tails carefully placed Cosmo on a table as he looked at her worriedly. She nodded. Both of them slowly made their way deeper into the hut, the floorboards creaking under them with every step. The hut was clean on the inside, contrasting to the rather blemished exterior. There was a room facing the beach that had two white sofas and a glass table, and there was a bedroom, with two tidy beds, so tidy that it was disturbing. The last room was a bathroom that had a simple shower set and a toilet. The both of them were heading towards the bedroom when a loud crash was heard. Cream jumped in shock and Tails' whole body jerked violently. Both their hearts shook vigorously in their chests as they took deep breaths to calm themselves down.

"Stay here," Tails said firmly. Cream nodded in fear as she took a step back from the doorway. Tails peered over the doorway and saw a white ceramic vase shattered into smithereens lying on the floor. He walked towards the vase to investigate. However, the moment he stepped in the room, the small doorway behind him was blocked off by raging flames. He turned around and gasped in shock. The flames danced gracefully, threatening to burn anything that touched it.

"Tails!" Cream shouted, running to the doorway.

"Cream! Are you okay?" Tails shouted from the other side of the lethal barrier. The both of them could feel the intense heat radiating to them. From the looks of it, the flame would have burnt down the whole hut within minutes, but magically, it was contained within the thin doorway. Tails raised an eyebrow.

"I'm fine! I'll call Mom!" Cream said as she hastily fished out her handphone from her pocket, nearly dropping it as she fumbled in panic. Before she could even unlock her phone, a thick rope snatched the phone off her hand. She stared at her empty hand in daze. The rope was too fast for her brain to register what had happened. Right when she turned towards the door to get help, a pair of feet swung down onto her head, knocking her unconscious. Tails' eyes widened in horror. He was just about to break the window and get help, but a heavy blow was delivered to the back of his head, knocking him out. The last thing he saw was a pair of pristine white boots before blacking out.

 _Time Shift_

The raging flame towered above the two of them. The flame that had destroyed hopes, dreams and lives of everyone there. Debris lay all over the ground, some melting in the red hot lava. Everything around them was fire. Fire for miles and miles. The world was desolate. Only a hundred or so managed to survive until this day, with about one person dying everyday. The buildings that remained standing were stained in pitch black soot, with massive cracks engraved into the concrete. How long this had gone on, nobody knew. It was like wind in any other world - always there. The giant flame danced mockingly to the two tiny creatures standing before him.

One of them held two emeralds. They glowed dimly, like a torchlight on low battery. An extremely rare source of light, considering it wasn't fire. He looked up to the flames, defiance burning in his eyes.

"You've taken this world for too long," he yelled with gritted teeth. He crossed his arms across his chest, each hand holding one emerald.

"Chaos emeralds, lend me your power..." he chanted. The light in the emeralds started to intensify slowly. "Eternal Sun... the flame that had been entrusted to the Royal Family..."

The emeralds' glows were so strong it looked as though the light was trying to force its way through the emerald. "Fall into slumber with my soul, Iblis! You cursed Flames of Disaster!"

With that, the emeralds glowed furiously, each creating a massive beam that bound each emerald to his heart. The light was so strong, the one behind him had to cover her eyes to block it off. The massive flame started to get sucked into the emeralds. The one holding them yelled in pain as strand after strand of molten flames poured into the emeralds. However, the flames pulled back out almost instantly. The pain was gone, and the flame remained, its tentacles of lava waving threateningly in the air.

"What...?" he gasped in confusion, staring at the two emeralds in his hands. The emeralds continued to glow, their light starting to flicker. "Why won't it accept me as the vessel?"

He focused more of his energy into the emeralds, refusing to give up. This was his chance to stop the flames once ans for all. He could save his once hopeless world. He could bring peace and hapiness to everyone who had survived. However, no matter how hard he concentrated, the flames still rejected to get absorbed by him. He shook his head in utter dismay and anger. Just then, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Blaze!" he exclaimed in shock as his partner placed her hand on one of the emeralds.

"I'll take Iblis," she said. His eyes widened. "Don't worry, my soul is already alit with flames. I will be accepted," she reassured, grabbing both emeralds from his hands. He stared in shock as the beam slowly retracted from his heart back into each emerald, only to be connected to her heart almost instantly after she grabbed them. He could only watch in terror as the flames started swirling into the emeralds while her whole body shook vigorously, her knees trying not to crumble underneath the weight. The flames were now swirling around her, refusing to be locked away forever.

"Come on, make it quick..." she said, gasping for air. "Use your Chaos Control to stop time... Then... seal us into a dimension..."

"No! I cannot do that to you!" he yelled. He was on the brink of tears as he watched his only friend getting consumed by merciless flames. She turned her head and locked eyes with him.

"Didn't we already go through this...? We agreed to save the world at any price!" she shouted at him. He knew he had to do it. He focused his energy to his mind as his sigil glowed bright blue. The two words were on the tip of his tongue. His chest felt heavy, and he was on the brink of tears. He slowly lifted his trembling hand, ready to initiate Chaos Control. A hand that would be thrown back down a moment later.

"I can't!" he screamed, head hanging in sorrow. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. "I wouldn't know what to do without you..." He shouted in between sobs. "You've fought alongside me to save the world... you're my friend... right?"

At that point of time, he had broken into tears as he watched his partner watch him with a weak smile on her face.

"You're still so naive..." she chuckled. "But... I've always liked that about you..." She was now facing him, a small smile forming on her chapped lips. He looked up into her eyes, and with one last burst of energy, she absorbed the raging inferno into her body.

The next moment, a fiery purple aura enveloped her, and she started to fade. He ran forward and tried to grab her hand, but he could only watch as it slipped through his fingertips. She was now levitating higher and higher into the sky, into the dark clouds that shrouded the sky.

"Good luck, Silver," she said, before disappearing in a massive explosion of energy. Silence followed. He fell to his knees as he watched the dark clouds start to disappear. The darkness of the world started to crawl back into hiding as warm rays of light shone down onto the land below. For once in eternity, the sun had shone.

She didn't know how, but she ended up getting this piece of memory from nowhere. She remembered clearly that it was Valentine's Day, and Silver had invited her over for a movie, since he had no one to go out with. She remembered vividly that that was the night she wanted to tell him how she actually felt about him. They had been friends since childhood, but Blaze felt like there was more than friendship between them. She started seeing him in a new light recently, and what better time to confess than Valentine's Day.

She remembered clearly the moment she decided to let it out. The movie had ended, and the credits were rolling on the screen. It was raining outside, but the fireplace was keeping them warm. She held both his hands, and stared straight into his confused and slightly blushing face.

"Blaze...?" he questioned, but made no attempt to back away.

"Silver... I... I need to tell you something..." she gulped nervously, her face blushing furiously. Just then, she realised that she couldn't feel her hands. Silver realised too, and they both looked down, only to realise that Blaze was fading away. Both of them stared at each other in shock.

"Blaze!" Silver yelled, desperately trying to shake her shoulders, which faded at his touch. Blaze watched in horror as she started to feel light. The next thing she knew, her face was in sand.

Sitting up, she spit out the sand in disgust. However, she realised that she was not alone. Her ears picked up another person spitting out sand and mumbling under her breath. Her voice was awfully familiar, but at that point of time she was too busy figuring out where she was at that time to care about who that person was.

She found herself sitting on the shore of a beach. The sand was pristine white and extremely fine. She scooped up a handful of sand just to feel the warm grains slip through her fingers as she looked around. Further down, there was a forest, and behind her was a few huts. Probably someone's home, she thought, but then she realised that there was a hut that had no door. The hut had a separation at the far end of it, and behind the separation were keys hanging from nails in the wall and a rocking chair with someone sleeping in it. She raised an eyebrow. She had never seen anything like that before. She stood up, dusted herself, and was about to head towards the huts when she heard someone call her name.

"Blaze...?" She turned around instantly, and was greeted with the sight of her trusty, young and intelligent sailor.


	10. Chapter 9: Dimension

**So guys some of you may not like the fact that I'm bringing Blaze and Marine into the story. However do note that they will be integral parts of the story, same with other characters that I have brought or will bring in.**

Chapter 9: Dimension

"It's okay, you didn't know it would turn out this way."

Vanilla was at the empty villa with Amy. There was no trace of either Tails or Cream. They had disappeared without a trace.

"How stupid must I have been to allow two young children to go on a vacation alone?" Vanilla cried out, tears in her eyes. Amy put her arm around the significantly taller one, clearly struggling to do so.

"It's okay, what's happened has happened. We should focus on searching for them," she assured. Vanilla sniffed and nodded. It hadn't even been a day and the two of them had gone missing. Vanilla was worried that Cream would miss hearing her mother's voice, so she called, but there was always no answer. She went to the Villa with Amy tagging along, only to find Cream's phone lying on the ground, screen shattered into smithereens. The both of them checked the whole house, but neither of them were found. Amy was worried as well, but knowing Tails and Cream, she knew that they were able to handle any situation well.

"I'm such a bad mother..." Vanilla said, sighing and shaking her head. Amy pat her shoulder.

"You are a great mother. Making mistakes is part of life, as long as you learn from them, and become a better person," Amy said. Vanilla felt better. She nodded, wiped her tears, and the both of them started to look for Tails and Cream.

 _Timeshift_

One moment they were unconscious, the next moment they were having tea with the ones who rendered them unconscious.

Not just any tea, tea that Cream had brought along for the vacation. In a shallow cave not so high up a mountain, sitting on a huge gray rock.

Tails was working away on his Miles Electric, while the other three sat silently. One was even sleeping.

"Any results?" one of them asked, folding her arms in frustration.

Tails simply shook his head and continued pressing numbers into the device. She rolled her eyes.

"I thought you said you were a genius," she mumbled. Tails glared at her, unimpressed.

"I'm a genius in mechanics. And even so, it's not everyday a crazy dimension travelling duo knocks you out and asks you for help figuring out how she got to this dimension, how to get back to their own dimension and why you ended up with a piece of memory you don't even remember." Tails said, clearly angered.

"We're not crazy!" She yelled back. "And look in the mirror before calling others crazy. Why the heck do you have to tails? And what kind of name is Tails? You sound and look like a freak, you crazy nerd!"

Tails froze. From young, he had always been verbally abused by everyone who saw him at Westside. He never knew who his parents were, and such things happened even at the orphanage he was sent to. Despite running from the orphanage, the other normal children would bump into him on the streets. The beatings and nasty comments would come crashing down onto him. His life before meeting Sonic was a nightmare, one that would forever be a part of him. Her words hit him hard. He wanted to cry, but bit his lip to stop himself. He opened his mouth to say something, but only air came out of his dry throat.

"That's enough, Blaze!" Cream yelled, startling her. Cream rushed to Tails and wrapped her arm around his shivering body. She then glared at Blaze angrily, her teeth gritted in rage. " Anything you want to say to him?"

Blaze opened her mouth, ready to fire back, but it shut quickly. She knew that she had hurt the kid big time. She knew because she had been there. She sighed.

"I'm sorry, Tails. I lost control of myself just now. I appreciate you trying to help us, I really do. I have no right to speak to you in such a manner," she said. This seemed to work, as Tails' body loosened up slowly. He nodded, and got back to work without saying anything. Cream shook her head at Blaze, and Blaze shrugged, giving her the look.

" _yawn..._ did I miss anything?" the sleeping raccoon had awoken from her deep slumber. Cream and Blaze couldn't help but to laugh at her confused face staring out at everyone. Even Tails let out a small chuckle. The raccoon raised an eyebrow.

"What's so funny?" she asked. This caused the two of them to laugh even more. She waved her little fist in frustration. "Tell me!"

"I think I've got something," Tails said, causing all three to turn towards him almost instantly. "Blaze, you said that when you woke up here, Marine was next to you?" Blaze nodded.

"And that piece of memory only involved Silver and you?" He received another nod.

"Well... it seens that there is something quite special about you..." he said, rubbing his chin. Blaze raised an eyebrow.

"Special...?" she questioned.

"I'm not an expert on superstitious stuff, but science shows that there is a reason both of you appeared here at the same time..."

All of them looked at him confused as he continued to scroll through the device.

"And the last person you came into contact with was Silver, right?" Blaze nodded again.

"Marine, how are you connected to Silver?" he asked.

"We spoke once or twice," Marine replied, shrugging. Tails rubbed his temples for a good while, amd the three of them gave each other anxious glances.

"I don't know how this is even possible..." he groaned.

"What is possible?" Cream asked. Tails looked up at them.

"You know when Eggman sent Chris back to his own world?" This time only Cream nodded.

"When Chris entered his world, his capsule interfered with a dimensional link." he tried to explain. "A dimensional link is created when someone or something from a dimension is travelling to another. The interference caused a disjoint in the two dimensions affected, which caused the same people at the same time from each dimension to be shuffled. And there was a 50/50 chance that this Blaze would land here, and that the Blaze from the other world would land here. The other Blaze was meant to travel to your dimension, but because of the interference, the dimensional link was redirected to Chris' world. Since this world is the source of the interference, and Chris' world is the receiving end, these four worlds' dimensional links with each other were mixed up, causing you to teleport over here, and the other you to teleport to Chris' world."

"But why did Blaze and I end up here if she wasn't in any dimension travel?" the raccoon asked.

"I'm not very sure on this. My only guess is that her travel was unintentional, and it only happened as a chain reaction to the interference. Why you were teleported here, I don't know, but it's most likely because of your relationship with either Blaze or Silver."

"Thank you for that very long and impossible to understand explanation, but why do I have this memory?" Blaze asked, tapping her foot impatiently. Tails rolled his eyes.

"Well, according to you, the Blaze in that memory faded away and exploded in the sky. My only hunch is that that other Blaze was going to travel to your dimension, but right when she did, the interference came in, so both Blazes would get each other's memory that involved an identical trigger item, which in this case is your friend, Silver. That also means the Blaze currently in Chris' world has your Valentine's memory with Silver." Tails explained, holding back a giggle. Blaze noticed this and rolled her eyes, trying not to be bothered by that. Just then, Cream gasped.

"Wait, you said that you remembered absorbing this flame that destroyed your world, right?" she asked in a soft voice. Blaze nodded, and Cream's eyes widened.

"So if the other Blaze is going to Chris' world with that flame..."

Everyone's eyes widened almost at the same time.

"That means whoever Chris is, his world would be devastated by now," Blaze whispered, hanging her head. Everyone was silent.

"I'm not trying to make you sound selfish..." Tails broke the silence with a soft voice, almost a whisper. "But hey, your world's saved at the end of the day, right?"

"My world doesn't deserved to be saved," Blaze said softly, closing her eyes and letting out a long sigh. Marine's eyes widened for a second or two, but reality soon hit her and she nodded grimly. "Our world doesn't care for those below us. It's like chess. The horses, kings, queens and so on live perfect lives, while the pawns struggle to feed themselves and their family everyday. And they don't care about society. Only themselves matter. A world like that really deserves to be destroyed."

Cream gazed at the floor, her mind racing with thought. She could imagine a world with two worlds in it. Chris' world was different than what Blaze just described.

"Even so, it doesn't deserve to destroyed," Tails spoke up. "At least there are people who care about their families. People who would put their families first. A world with that deserves to survive, no matter how hard it may be." Deep down, however, he couldn't imagine Chris' world as a wasteland of flames. He had spent quite a while there, and had grown to love it. Whether Chris was still alive or not, no one knew.

 _Timeshift_

The two of them walked under the hot sun of the afternoon, dragging every step across the bright green grass. Sweat trickled down their foreheads as they headed towards their destination. The destination that would change his life forever.

Soon, they were standing in front of a towering chunk of metal. It looked ancient, yet untouched. The surroundings were silent, too silent for comfort. Not even the wind blew. He gazed at the gigantic structure, memories rushing through his head.

 _Once you're cured, we can go down there together._

 _Shadow, I want you to bring those down there happiness. A chance to do something great._

 _Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog._

He squeezed his eyes shut and grabbed his forehead, letting out trembling breaths as he did so. A hand was placed on his shoulder.

"You don't have to enter if you don't want to," she reassured. He shook his head and removed his hands.

"I'm fine," he said softly, slowly opening his eyes. She gestured for him to proceed with a smile on her face, but she was extremely worried for him. This could easily make him go crazy, depressed or even kill himself. But the truth can never be hidden forever.

Their footsteps echoed along the heavy steel walls of the abandoned ship as they headed deeper into the structure. The woman stared down at a device, her face devoid of emotion.

"Take a left," she said calmly. Every turn he made, he studied the passage that faced him from top to bottom. They were so familiar yet so foreign. The both of them shuddered when they saw a body in a police uniform lying in a pool of blood. And the body was human.

"Here we are," she said, and the ebony hedgehog stopped in his tracks. Facing them was a dark grey door, rusted by age. On it was a sign that read "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY". She placed a circular device on a keypad by the wall, and within seconds, the door opened, releasing a long, ear deafening creak as it scratched across the floor. She sighed under her breath as he walked into the room. Dangling cables hung from the ceiling, and the walls were lined with blank computer screens, littered with massive cracks. Bits of glass threating to stab anyone who touched it were scattered all over. A colossal structure stood in the middle of the room. It had massive pipes pumping something into a chamber. The walls of the chamber were several layers of metal, with openings that fit the pipes nicely. He couldn't believe that the pipes were still working despite what the ship had been through.

She stepped forward and retrieved a laser cutter from a table and plugged it into a battery so big that it could fill a car boot entirely by itself.

"Stand back, honey," she instructed, and he obeyed, standing to the side. She then proceeded to saw a square hole in the thick walls of the chamber. Once a clean cut was made, the cut out piece fell onto the floor with a massive clank. Freezing cold air immediately rushed out of the chamber. She grabbed a black colour circle from inside the chamber. Upon closer look, he realised that it was a CD.

"You made me come all the way here to retrieve a CD?" he asked, disgruntled.

"Wait til you see what's in this little baby," she replied with a wink. He rolled his eyes. "Now that our work here is done, mind to bring us back?"

He held out his hand and watched as a glowing emerald slowly formed on his palm. Once it was solidified, he held onto the bat's shoulder.

"Chaos Control!" With that, the two of them disappeared in a flash.


End file.
